Firefighters' pay raises eyebrows

Overtime pay boosted the paychecks of more than 60 Costa Mesa firefighters and police officers by at least 40 percent over their base pay last year, according to new numbers posted by the city.

And a handful of city workers – all from its Fire Department – earned overtime pay that nearly doubled their base pay:

Fire Department Battalion Chief W. Kershaw's base pay was $138,744, and he made an additional $109,525 in overtime. That helped make him the city's highest-paid employee in 2011, with total compensation of $346,168.

At No. 2 citywide was Battalion Chief K. Diamond, with that same base pay of $138,744. Overtime, totaling $83,832, helped him reach total compensation of $313,009.

At No. 4 citywide was Fire Capt. J. Noceti, with base pay of $114,084, overtime pay of $83,919, and total compensation of $283,753.

Interim Fire Chief K. Dominic was the No. 3 most well-compensated city employee ($288,960), and Police Capt. L. Gogerty was No. 5 ($279,012), though little to none of that was due to overtime.

All five came out higher than the job that's often atop of the best-paid list: the city manager. Tom Hatch, who became the CEO last year, had total compensation of $272,483.

The detail of Costa Mesa's pay reporting surpasses just about anything we've seen in the post-Bell transparency era. We at the Watchdog had grown inordinately fond of the state controller's numbers because he requires agencies to report what's in Box 5 of each workers' W-2 form – total income as reported to Uncle Sam – which was the most honest accounting we had seen.

Costa Mesa, however, takes it several steps farther, by breaking down that total income number into individual components – actual base pay, overtime pay, specialty pay, leave payouts, etc. – and then
identifying each worker by name.

The city says it's just trying to be as transparent as possible. But given the civil unrest that is roiling the city right now, not everyone sees it that way.

ALLEGATIONS OF SENSATIONALISM

The firefighters' association acknowledges that the numbers are correct, “but we wish the city would have provided some context about what those numbers mean,” said Costa Mesa Firefighters Association President Tim Vasin. “Some numbers are fairly high, and if you're a citizen who hasn't necessarily been keeping in touch with what's going on lately, there's shock value to those numbers. Part of the City Council's strategy is shock value.”

The important context to those high overtime figures – according to both Vasin and city manager Hatch – is that the city had about nine vacancies in its firefighting ranks for much of 2011. Since pink slips have been issued to a large percentage of city staffers, and since it's unclear whether the city will continue to have a fire department, only two firefighters were hired last year as vacancies arose.

Instead, the department decided to rely on overtime to fill in the blanks. Add to that the fact that eight administrative positions shrank down to three, and you start to understand what went on, Vasin said. “We've been downsized, we're doing more with less, and experienced the busiest year on record. It was a long year, and a lot of us are tired.”

Firefighters wanted the city to at least post the number of hours people worked in the calendar year: The average is 3,300 hours on duty – which pencils out to 63.5 hours per week, per firefighter. The huge amount of overtime creates safety concerns, Vasin said. It's not particularly good for anyone – not the city, not the firefighters, not their families, and not the public.

“The City Council last year created a lot of chaos,” Vasin said. “There was no time to plan ‘how are we going to do everything once we eliminate or vacate these positions? How are we going to make up for the workload and keep up service levels?' I feel pretty strongly that the City Council created this chaos, but also created those overtime numbers by doing what they've done.

“We feel the compensation report is the latest in a series of actions that make us believe they want to politicize the issues, rather than be truly transparent on what the facts are.”

Vasin also wants to make sure people understand that big overtime payments do not count toward a firefighter's retirement.

‘AS TRANSPARENT AS POSSIBLE'

The city does not apologize for having one of the most no-holds-barred employee pay postings.

“We're trying to provide the most transparency we can possibly provide,” city manager Hatch said. “There's a lot of thought that goes into each column, and it's been evolving. We think it does a good job of providing the information in a way people will understand it, as transparently as possible.”

The extent of overtime, of course, gives one pause.

“It was a very different year for us, the last year,” Hatch said. “A lot of looking at the way we provide services, restructuring almost every area of the organization. And in addition, we went out for proposals for services in a variety of different areas, and one of those was in fire services.”

While switching to the regional Orange County Fire Authority is saving the city of Santa Ana a bundle – up to $10 million a year – it wouldn't pack quite the same punch for Costa Mesa. Fire services now cost Costa Mesa $20.3 million per year; OCFA proposed three different scenarios, ranging from $18.2 million to $16.5 million a year. That would save the city $2.1 million to $3.8 million. The city wasn't tickled with that and is continuing to look at other options.

All of this took the better part of a year. During that time, firefighters retired and took other jobs. Hiring new folks in the midst of transformation made little sense, especially when you consider that retirement costs for public safety workers are equal to 46 percent of salary, Hatch said.

“We've reduced employees from 611 down to 450 now,” Hatch said. “We're still implementing that, still getting different workloads assigned to different individuals, still getting used to operating with significantly fewer people. Some things may be outsourced, others, not.”

User Agreement

Keep it civil and stay on topic. No profanity, vulgarity, racial
slurs or personal attacks. People who harass others or joke about
tragedies will be blocked. By posting your comment, you agree to
allow Orange County Register Communications, Inc. the right to
republish your name and comment in additional Register publications
without any notification or payment.